hartshorn-msg - 9/22/11

Hartshorn in period. Use as an leavening agent.

NOTE: See also the files: leavening-msg, cookies-msg, fd-Germany-msg, yeasts-msg, ovens-msg, horn-msg, Horn-Working-art, glues-msg, Working-Horn-art.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
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Date: Sat, 21 eb 2004 10:25:09 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Hartshorn plantain
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

There were several postings regarding hartshorn recently.
I came across this mention today that gave me pause:
Markham in The English Housewife (the Michael Best edited
edition on page 62) in the summary of plants that are to be swn in
March at the wane of the moon lists:
"At the wane, .... cucumbers, hartshorn, samphire...
Best includes in  footnote 13 on page 253 that:
Hartshorn was "a name given to serveral wild plants, most commonly
Plantago coronpus, hartshorn plantain; the mstery as to why such a
plant should be cultivated
in the housewife's garden is solved by reference to Markham's source.
In Maison Rustique the plant is "corne de boeuf." Hartshorn is given
by Corgrave (1611) as the translation of "corne de cerf." "Corne beuf"
is translated as the more probable "herb fenugreek."

Johnnae llyn Lewis


Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:59:26 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Hartshorn in English Sources
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I did this search in August 2006 in answer to a question on SCA Subtleties.

I took the opportunity to take a look at English sources for hartshorn.
The full text project of EEBO makes this an interesting search.

The earliest printed English reference I can locate quickly tonight is
dated 1527 or 1528.
The vertuose boke of distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of herbes
by Brunschwig, Hieronymus, ca. 1450-ca. 1512.
There is a recipe in it for "Water of harteshorne" which is made of
chopped hornes which are then distilled.

Of course it should have come as no surprise to me that it would be
mentioned in my old friend Alessio's text from 1558. From his third 
volume dated 1562 comes this recipe:

For the same another remedy tryed and proued.

MAke into very small pouder gumme Arabic, Tra|gacantha, Hartes horne
burned, of a bloodstone burned, and redde Corall burned, of eche halfe a 
Dragme, and of Bole armenicke two scruples: mixe all with the yelke of a 
rawe Egge, and geue it the Pa+cient when he spitteth bloode.

By 1590 it appears in Philip Barrough's The methode of phisicke
conteyning the causes, signes, and cures of invvard diseases in mans
body from the head to the foote.
It appears in that text in a listing of substances-- "acatia, mirrhe,
hypocichidos, hartshorn..."

I can find it again in Markham's Masterpiece in the 1610 edition and again in the edition of Estienne that Markham edited in 1616.

Hartshorn also appears in a number of pharmacy recipes in the early part of the 17th century and once it becomes associated with plague cures and cures for
consumption, there are numerous mentions. It appears in the Countess of Kent's recipe book of 1653 in a number of places, including mentions of hartshorn jelly. There's at least 16 mentions to harts horn in Digby's Closet, including one for a nourishing broth and several for harts-horn gelly.

By 1670 Hannah Woolley is including it in The Queen-like Closet under "The best sort of Hartshorn Iel|ly to serve in a Banquet.: Take six Ounces of Hartshorn;"
It does of course also appear in the form of jellies in the Tudor-Jacobean Booke of Sweetmeats which makes up part of Marha Washington's Booke of Cookery.

I don't know that I can find an early use of it as a leavening in the 
English texts. Jelly-yes; water--yes; cure-- yes. Cookie--no.

AND no I haven't run a search through ECCO yet for the 18th century.

Johnnae


Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:04:23 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] another hartshorn mention
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Also from the 2006 subtleties list-- Johnnae

<<< Hartshorn is ammonium carbonate and IIRC there is an in period 
reference to its use in one of the German cookbooks >>>

Is this what you are referring to?

 From a cookbook from the archives of the Teutonic order, 15th Century,

Translated by Volker Bach.

[[16]] Wilthu machenn ein Hir?cornn:

item zu der zeytt alls es weig ist so nim das Geh?rnn und seidtt das und
mach es sauber und schneidt das zu Scheinenn alls vill du wilst ader des
Gehirns gebinenn magst und nim ein Honeg vnd seudt die Unsauberlichkeitt
davon und nim dan Leckuchen und ?ebe in und nim dan die Peis (?) die du nitt
gewinenn canst und hacke die und sto? die clein unnd nyme ein wenig Honegs
und geribenn Leckuchenn und de? Hirenn Sway? und streich es durch ein Thuch
und leg das Gehornn darein und la? es siedenn.

If you want to make hartshorn

Take the horn (antlers) when they are soft and boil them and cut them into
/Scheinenn/ (strips? slices?) as much as you like or can get of the antler.
Take honey and boil the impurities out of it, then take gingerbread and
sieve it. The /Pei?/ (?) that you can not get you take and chop finely. Add
honey and ground gingerbread and the hart's blood and pass that through a
cloth. Place the antler in it and boil it.

Serena da Riva


Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:51:50 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Feb 25, 2009, at 6:30 PM, Terry Decker wrote:
<<< As I recall, ammonium carbonate as a leaven definitely turns up in the 
18th Century along with a number of other chemical leavens.   There are 
some 16th and 17th Century German references to hartshorn,  some of which 
are definitely deer antler and some which might be either. >>>

The BASF site gives a date of something like 1823 for heavy 
experimentation into chemical leavening; it could have taken place 
earlier, or it could be someone interpreting "some time around 1800",  or 
some similar phrase, somewhat loosely.

What has me a little concerned is that although I keep seeing  references 
to chemical leavening in 17th century Germany and Scandinavia, it's like 
I'm seeing references to the references, "we  all know that" such-and-such 
is the case, etc. We do know that chemical leavenings appear in recipes 
for some baked goods that are very old indeed, but it's not always clear 
that the recipes are all that old. While I'd love to be more edumacated 
on this subject, at the  moment it does seem conceivable that we might be 
looking at a slightly  more benign version of the Big Lie political 
tactic, an untruth which, if repeated often enough, becomes widely 
accepted as the truth.

Can anybody cite some specific, clear, primary or near-primary source 
reference to hartshorn as a leavening? It would presumably have to be  the 
ammonia salt, and not simply the ground-up horn, which, as I  recall, does 
appear in jelly/leach recipes as a gelling agent, like  pig's feet, cow 
hooves, isinglass, etc.

The fact that we've been talking about this here on SCA-Cooks for a 
billion years (give or take) doesn't count as a primary source ;-).

Adamantius
-----------------------------

An excellent consideration.  Somewhere among my papers, I have what purports 
to be a translation of a recipe from the 1590's that uses hartshorn as 
leavening.  I have yet to find the source to determine if it is an accurate 
translation or modern fudging of an older recipe.  If I can locate it, I'll 
post it.  Beyond that, my personal collection of recipes has mostly mid to 
late 19th Century recipes with chemical leavens.

Root suggests that actual hart's horn was used as a leaven in the 16th 
Century and was replaced by ammonium carbonate.  I'm not sure how to produce 
an edible leavening gas from bone, so this statement is questionable, until 
proven or disproven.

The Oxford Companion to Food, under baking powder. give a 1790 date for the 
use of pearl ash as a leavening agent prior to the creation of baking 
powder.  No reference to hartshorn.

It is worth noting neither source provides a primary source for the 
information.

Bear


Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:00:06 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I came across this description last evening:

The horns of the deer, or Hartshorn, have been medical from time 
immemorial. The shavings or raspings, boiled for a long time in water, 
produce a considerable proportion of Hartshorn-Jelly, which is of a 
nourishing quality. By distillation, an ammoniacal liquor is procured, 
which, freed from its oil and rendered limpid by successive 
distillations, is commonly called Spirit Of Hartshorn. It is a Carbonate 
of Ammonia dissolved in water which, when saturated, deposits the 
Carbonate in the form of a salt usually termed Salt Of Hartshorn, or 
Volatile Salts. By continuing the heat, the Hartshorn is calcined and 
wholly converted into Phosphate of Lime, which is ground into a white 
powder, and, in various mixtures, is prescribed as a medicine. These 
different preparations are also made with common bones, which, unless in 
their containing a less proportion of gelatine, do not differ in their 
constituent principles from Hartshorn.

An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, in which the Words are 
Explained in the Order of Their Natural Affinity, Independent of 
Alphabetical Arrangement ...By David Booth

Published by Simpkin, Marshall, 1836

Johnnae


Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:03:46 -0500
From: "Kingstaste" <kingstaste at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I have wondered about this for years, I could never figure out how an antler gave anything like a chemical rise.  I found this on OChef's Q&A page.  They suggest heating (not 'burning', just 'heating') releases the gas that produces the leaven. 

http://www.ochef.com/539.htm

"Hartshorn is a leavening agent, and a precursor to the baking soda and
baking powder that everyone uses these days. Hartshorn's virtue is that it
readily breaks down into a gas when heated (causing the leavening), but
unless it escapes completely, it leaves a hint or more of the smell of
ammonia. For that reason, it is generally used only in cookie recipes where
it doesn't have to fight its way out of a deep batter."

Christianna

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	hartshorn-msg	1 of 5